It was the year Public Enemy's It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back brought expletives and Civil Rights commentary back to mainstream music. It was the year DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince's sophomore album, He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper, sold more than three million copies, before garnering the genre's firstGrammy Award. It was the year the now seminal N.W.A. would bring the country's youth to their knees — and their parents to panicked tears — with their classic debut album, Straight Outta Compton. But most of all, it was the year the rap game would forever change when a hit film called Big delivered to us the genre's most cherished muse, Tom Hanks.

Tom Hanks and popular hip-hop's rise were coincidental. Big established Hanks as a massive box office draw throughout the '90s and 2000s and earned him his first Oscar nomination. Around the time hip-hop got its foothold in mass culture, Hanks became that culture's leading man. With his boyish looks, back-to-back Oscar wins in 1993 and '94 (one of two actors to win twice in a row in the Best Actor category) and massive street cred for his breakout performances of "Jimmy Jimmy Cocoa Puffs" and the unforgettable Dan Akroyd-collaboration "City of Crime," Hanks somehow wound up as a persistent presence in American hip-hop.

That's partially because many of his characters became cultural touchstones. Hanks' iconic character repertoire includes an array of good-hearted and definitively American icons: Forrest Gump, a boy trapped in a man's body, Santa Claus, Jim Lovell, Captain Richard Phillips and a toy cowboy. As rappers moved from niche to mass audiences over the last few decades, Hanks references afforded mass appeal and the opportunity for some not-too-subtle punning.

Among the many things hip-hop and Nora Ephron have in common, Tom Hanks is often the least acknowledged. With Frank Ocean's hit Grammy-performed 2013 hit "Forrest Gump" and Buckwheat Groat's recently viral gangsta rap video, "Tom Hanks," it's time we finally plumbed the depths of Hanks' weird hip-hop influence. Here are 33 of the greatest Hanks lines in rap.

1. "Hey Mama" by Kanye West

"Forrest Gump's momma said, life was like a box of chocolatesMy momma told me go to school, get your doctorate."

2. "Womyn" by Heems

"Women like to watch You’ve Got Mail with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks Women you’re great, on behalf of men, ThanksI’m glad to be a part of your ranks."

3. "All That (Lady)" by Game ft. Lil Wayne, Big Sean, & Jeremih

"She told me 'bout her ex man, her old boy storiesAnd how she had a dildo, you know, toy stories."

4. "Clique / Fuckin' Problem" by Tyga

"Competition’s small so I live big like Tom HanksBig bang, 22, nigga don’t believe in King."